Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre; winning points are made through the contact with an opponent.
In Olympic fencing, points are scored by touching or hitting opponents (the “contact”) with the tip or blade of an athlete's sword, which is wired to a buzzer that sounds to indicate contact, on a valid target area; in the foil, this is the trunk of the body, in the sabre everything above the waist, excluding hands, and in epee the entire body is legal. Colored lights on a conventional electrical scoring apparatus register valid hits, while white lights register hits landing outside the valid target area.
To measure contact, a conventional fencing scoring system includes at least: a sword, a lame (jacket), a body cord, a reel cord, and a scoring apparatus. The body cord is connected to each of a sword and lame of an opponent, and further connected to the reel cord. The reel cord is connected to the scoring apparatus. Each opponent of a fencing match is connected, and the scoring apparatus is generally configured to make a sound, light, or combination thereof upon a sword of a first opponent making contact with a lame or other equipment (guard, helmet, etc.) of a second opponent, and vice versa.
Problems with conventional fencing scoring systems include added bulk and other limitations of the reel cord. For example, the reel cords are difficult to travel with.
Closed loop electronic scoring systems are currently used to detect touches between fencers that can occur in a fraction of a second. It is composed of a scoring apparatus and wires (cords or cables) that connects the apparatus to the body cords of the fencer. These machines are programmed according to the latest fencing regulation do determine when a touch is valid, and also display the scoring of the match.
One of the major issues in fencing, for the fencers, clubs and event organizers, are the wires or cables used to connect the scoring apparatus and the body cord of the fencer. In order to avoid being in the way of the fencer, reels are used on the reel cord to keep them in constant tension so it can retract when the fencers walk backwards. This cause some pressure on the fencer, which he needs to overcome when walking forward. For the club or event organizers, there is the logistic challenge is setup all the wires for each lane, so it is not in the way of the competitors and participants.
Recently, wireless scoring systems have emerged in fencing, in particular for athletes who travel with clubs and find convenience in wireless systems. However, these wireless scoring systems are limited and unreliable, since, they operate using capacitance sensors and cannot be properly calibrated, or remain calibrated with sufficient reliability, or for sufficient duration, throughout a tournament match or event. In fact, there remains a need for a wireless fencing scoring system that does not require a common ground or sensor calibration, and which is portable and suitable for tournament use with sufficient reliability and accuracy.